


Here's To You

by TheAsexualofSpades



Series: Quarantine Drabbles [89]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Banter, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Father's Day, Fluff, Gen, John Mulaney References, Light Angst, M/M, Raleigh can sing because I said so, Reminiscing, Song: Sober Up, can be platonic or romantic you decide, the drift is not inherently romantic and i will die on this hill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:09:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24841330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAsexualofSpades/pseuds/TheAsexualofSpades
Summary: Mako's version of celebrations for Father's Day now involves sitting somewhere quiet with her plush Jaeger, thinking. Sensei said she could find him in the Drift. Perhaps this year, she can find him in other places as well.
Relationships: Hermann Gottlieb & Mako Mori, Mako Mori & Stacker Pentecost, Newton Geiszler & Mako Mori, Newton Geiszler/Hermann Gottlieb, Raleigh Becket & Mako Mori, Raleigh Becket/Mako Mori
Series: Quarantine Drabbles [89]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1677655
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Here's To You

**Author's Note:**

> i love them so much they're so good
> 
> also the tumblr post i linked to has a fantastic verison of John Mulaney's 'The One Thing You Can't Replace' if Hermann would tell it and I gotta say it's great

Fandom: Pacific Rim

Prompt: “Sing me a song, please?”

<https://a-small-batch-of-dragons.tumblr.com/post/179053004310/hermann-gottlieb-in-the-one-thing-you-cant>

* * *

Mako knows that it is late and she should be asleep. But she is awake, and this means she is thinking. She fidgets with the plushie of their Jaeger Raliegh had given her for her birthday. She carefully pulls open the hatch covering the core and runs her fingers over the stitching.

_You can always find me in the Drift._

Mako knows. She reaches for Sensei at nights when she cannot sleep, a remnant of learning how to live after the Kaiju. She reaches. She finds him.

She finds his uniform, worn and smooth from its years of wear, buttons and patches cold to the touch, fabric just this side of too rough.

She finds his voice, low and even, never changing octaves. It thrums through her, like the feeling of the Jaeger rumbling under her feet.

She finds his hands, rough and calloused from working, from fighting, from _surviving._ They cupped hers when hers were smaller, smoother, but now that she has the same calluses, they feel safer.

Mako grips the plushie to her chest and rocks her weight slowly back and forth, humming to herself.

“Mako?”

She looks up. Raliegh stands over her, looking down with a concerned expression on his face.

“Hello, Raliegh.”

“Hey.” He crouches down. “Everything okay?”

Mako nods. “I am simply thinking.”

“Ah.”

Raliegh carefully eases his weight down next to her, giving her time to tell him to leave or to decide she wants to get up. Mako does not move, simply relaxes next to him. He is warm, solid. Here.

“When I was small,” Mako says quietly, “I would get Sensei something very small for Father’s Day.”

Raleigh leans a little closer, his presence in the Ghost Drift helping to prop her up.

“I do not know what I would get for him this year.”

Raliegh hums noncommittally. “Can’t say I’m an expert on gift-giving for _anyone,_ let alone someone I’ve never seen out of uniform.”

Mako allows herself a small smile. “He was fond of people, not things. I…tried to get him things that were also about people.”

“Can you gimme an example?”

Raliegh’s question is gentle, an offering. It is not an interrogation, nor an accusation. She misses easy conversation when she cannot feel him in the Drift.

“One year,” she murmurs, “I brought him a piece of the scrap from _his_ Jaeger. I had one of the techs help me make it into a paperweight.”

“Damn. That’s cool.”

“Another year I gave him a sake set from one of the villages where I grew up,” Mako continues, smiling at the memory of Sensei balancing the set on his desk. “When it came time for me to have my first drink, we used the set.”

“Wait, is that the one with the—“

“Yes,” Mako admits, “it is the one with the missing cup. I…did not realize that my depth perception would be altered so significantly.”

Raliegh snorts. “Yeah, see, now I can’t imagine that.”

“It was my first time drinking!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m in no place to judge.” Raleigh leans back onto his hands. “My first time drinking I’m pretty sure I ended up on top of a bar, singing at the top of my lungs.”

Mako giggles. The image of her stoic, easy-going Raleigh on top of a bar, singing, is enough to temporarily take her mind off of other things.

“You did not tell me you could sing.”

“You didn’t ask,” he defends weakly, nudging her shoulder.

“Sing me a song, please?”

Raliegh heaves an exaggerated sigh, sitting up, dragging himself like some great chore. He gives her a wink when she rolls her eyes at his theatrics.

“What am I singing?”

Mako grows quiet, running her fingers over the seams in the plush.

“I would like a quiet song,” she murmurs quietly, “one that says it is not a bad thing to grow up. And that it is okay to…be childlike sometimes.”

She clutches the plush to her chest and leans into Raliegh.

“I grew up fast.”

“You did,” he agrees when she doesn't continue, “and that’s a lot of weight to bear.”

Mako nods. “I…I miss the feeling of being a child sometimes.”

“Understandable.”

“And…I miss Sensei.”

Raleigh wraps one of his arms around Mako and pulls her close. “I think I have a song for you.”

He clears his throat and sings.

_“Hello, hello._

_I'm not where I'm supposed to be._

_I hope that you're missing me,_

_Cause it makes me feel young._

_Hello, hello._

_Last time that I saw your face_

_Was recess in second grade_

_And it made me feel young._

_“Won't you help me sober up?_

_Growing up it made me numb_

_And I wanna feel something again._

_Won't you help me sober up?_

_All the big kids they got drunk_

_And I wanna feel something again._

_Won't you help me feel something again?_

_How's it go again?”_

Raleigh’s voice is warm. It washes over her like sun-warmed fog, seeping into her skin and washing away the chill. The soft rumble in his chest mixes with her memory in the Drift and she closes her eyes.

_“Goodbye, goodbye_

_I said to my bestest buds._

_We said that we'd keep in touch_

_And we did our best._

_All my new friends_

_We smile at party time._

_But soon we forgot to smile_

_At anything else._

_“Won't you help me sober up?_

_Growing up it made me numb_

_And I wanna feel something again._

_Won't you help me sober up?_

_All the big kids they got drunk_

_And I wanna feel something again._

_Won't you help me feel something again?_

_How's it go again?_

_How's it go again?_

_“My favorite color is you_

_You're vibrating out my frequency._

_My favorite color is you_

_You keep me young and that's how I wanna be._

_My favorite color is you_

_You're vibrating out my frequency._

_My favorite color is you_

_You keep me young and that's how I wanna be.”_

Mako smiles. The rooftop is no longer cold. The plush in her hands slides to lie on her lap as she reaches for Raliegh’s hand.

_“Hello, hello._

_I'm not where I'm supposed to be._

_I hope that you're missing me_

_Cause it makes me feel young._

_Hello, hello._

_Last time that I saw your face_

_Was recess in second grade_

_And it made me feel young._

_And I wanna feel something again._

_I just wanna feel something again._

_“Won't you help me sober up?_

_Growing up it made me numb_

_And I want to feel something again._

_Won't you help me sober up?_

_All the big kids they got drunk_

_And I wanna feel something again._

_Won't you help me feel something again?_

_Can I finally feel something again?_

_“How’s it go again?”_

“It’s sadder than I remember,” Raleigh muses once he’s done, “sorry about that.”

Mako lifts her chin, planting it on Raliegh’s shoulder. “It was perfect.”

Raleigh’s shy smile makes her chest feel a little lighter. “Good. The, uh, artist came out and told people it was about trying to embrace the freedom that comes with being a child and uh, trying not to grow up too much.”

He gives her a pointed look, nudging her mind tenderly in the Ghost Drift. “I don’t ever try and presume what Pentecost was thinkin’, ever, but, uh, I think he would’ve wanted to make sure you were happy.”

“He did,” Mako whispers.

“That includes not being too hard on yourself, Mako,” Raliegh says quietly, “you don’t have to grow up too fast if you don’t want to.”

“It may be a little late,” Mako confesses.

“You’ve got time.” Raliegh pulls her into a careful embrace. “And there will be plenty of opportunities for you to not be as adult as you are.”

Mako snuggles into his hold. “This sounds like something Newt would tell me.”

“There’s an idea,” Raleigh says, “I’m sure _he’s_ got some stories he could tell you.”

“The song you sang,” Mako asks, “what was it called?”

“‘Sober Up.’”

She giggles. “That is something our younger selves did not do very well, hmm?”

Raliegh groans sympathetically. “Oh, no. Hangovers, before I knew what to do with them, were the _worst._ ”

“Newt does have good stories, but Hermann has better ones.”

“Wait, really? I thought he didn’t drink.”

Mako sits up, her eyes lighting up. “Have you not heard his story?”

“No...?”

Mako jumps to her feet. “Come. You must.”

“Whoa, hey!”

Mako pulls Raliegh through the Shatterdome, stumbling into the threshold of Newt and Hermann’s lab.

“Hermann!” Newt calls, poking his head out from behind a mess of books. “We got visitors!”

“Yes, yes, Newton, I can hear.” Hermann stands up from his desk and turns to greet them. “Ms. Mori, Mr. Beckett. How can we help you?”

“Raleigh tells me he has not heard your story,” Mako says, her eyes still sparkling with excitement.

“What story?”

“The one about why you do not drink anymore.”

“ _What?_ ” Newt scurries over, helping Mako drag Raliegh to the couches behind the blackboards. “Dude, you gotta.”

Mako giggles at Raleigh’s befuddled expression as he gets shepherded around by Newt. It bears quite a strong resemblance to an amused bear being pushed around by an enthusiastic badger. She stops when she notices Raliegh looking at her with a different expression on his face.

“What?”

“You look happy,” he says simply, “little-kid happy.”

Mako beams.

“Hermann!” Newt throws himself down onto the couch next to them. “Come on, tell the story!”

“Newton, you have heard this story a dozen times, you cannot possibly—“

“Of course I can, it’s a fuckin’ hilarious story. And you tell it so well.”

“Ah, well, thank you.”

Hermann takes a deep breath and begins.

As Mako settles in to listen to the story, she clutches the plush to her tightly. She can find Sensei in the Drift, but she can also find him in other people.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Come yell at me on tumblr while we're all in quarantine. 
> 
> https://a-small-batch-of-dragons.tumblr.com/


End file.
